News from Thailand – March 26, 2014
Of course, I would say. Fishermen hope that Indonesia will soon lift the ban on fishing in Indonesian waters, which was imposed after the murder of two Indonesian marines by Thai fishermen. Fisheries employers have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to talk to the Indonesian government.
According to the Songkhla Fishery Association, 500 trawlers have been affected by the ban. The loss of income is 30 million baht per day. The ban also costs the Indonesian government money, because it is now missing out on the 150.000 baht per ship that must be paid to be able to fish there for two months.
Twelve fishermen were involved in the murder, two are considered witnesses. The marines had boarded the trawler on March 8 as they searched for fishermen who had mated ashore with Indonesian marines. Their bodies were dumped into the sea. The police have the matter under investigation. Arrests have not yet been made.
– The Thai Feed Mill Association will pay extra to fishermen who fish in an environmentally friendly way. This means not using nets with smaller meshes to catch small fry that can be sold to the fishmeal industry. This practice destroys the marine ecology.
The Thai Fishmeal Producers Association says that 65 percent of fishmeal is made from unusable fish parts and 35 percent from bycatch. The association does not consider it its task to check whether the by-catch has been caught legally; that's what the government is for. The European Union only buys fish that has been legally caught.
Oxfam yesterday announced its research of 'Mapping Shrimp Feed Supply Chain in Songkhla Province to Facilitate Feed Dialogue'. The study found that fishermen's income fell 1983-fold between 1999 and 1961. According to the Fisheries Service, 297,8 kilos of fish per hour were caught in 2000. In 17,8 that was only XNUMX kilos.
– The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is unfazed by the three grenade attacks Monday night on its headquarters and the Government Lottery (GLO) office in Nonthaburi. "We'll just get on with our work. Our investigations have never been influenced by any party," said Secretary-General Sansern Poljiak.
The first grenade landed on the roof of NACC building 2 at about half past ten. Fifteen minutes later, a grenade landed on the property of neighbor GLO and a third landed on the roof.
When the attacks took place, protesters from the red shirt People's Radio for Democracy Group were in front of the building. They began a blockade Monday in protest of the NACC's investigation into Prime Minister Yingluck's role as chairman of the National Rice Policy Committee.
The NACC is investigating corruption in the rice mortgage system and accuses Yingluck of negligence. The demonstrators point out that the investigations into irregularities under the Abhisit government are not progressing.
As a result of the blockade, the NACC now works elsewhere. “The protesters want to disrupt our work, but the only effect is to slow down the work,” says Sansern.
– Four pro-government demonstrators reported to the police of Nonthaburi yesterday. They are charged with assaulting a monk Monday at the NACC office. The police released them on bail.
According to one of the four, the monk, intervening in a skirmish with a man, had cursed them and pointed at her with his cane. The woman said she initially doubted whether he was really a monk and she believed that he wanted to attack her with the stick. She then enlisted the help of other protesters, who attacked the monk.
– In a fire in a Karen refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border in Ban Mae La (Tak), eighteen huts went up in flames on Monday evening. The fire brigade also demolished another eighteen huts to prevent the fire from spreading further. There were no injuries.
– A red shirt demonstrator was killed on May 19, 2010 by gunfire from the direction where soldiers were stationed, but it is not possible to determine exactly who fired. So yesterday the Bangkok South Criminal Court ruled on the incident on the day the army ended the weeks-long occupation by red shirts of the Ratchaprasong intersection.
– The organizer gives the lack of water as the reason, but more likely is the threat of the Ministry of Culture to go to court. Celebrate Songkran 2014 in Singapore will therefore not take place. The organizers look forward to it. It was the first time that the festival would be held.
– Six leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) and the Caravan of the Poor have been sentenced to two years in prison for the siege of the Nation Tower eight years ago. At the time, they led about a thousand demonstrators to protest against a newspaper that had published an article allegedly offensive to the monarchy.
– The National Health Commission is irate that the United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok has abruptly canceled reservations for its annual convention. The convention was to be held from today to Friday.
The center has pulled the plug over safety concerns. It is near the site of a protest group at Government House and a site on Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue where two groups previously had a protest camp.
The convention would be attended by more than 10 international and domestic medical professionals, academics, campaigners and government representatives. Some speakers have even arrived in Bangkok. XNUMX million baht has already been spent on the preparations. It is not yet known when the (sixth) convention will be held.
– The restriction that minors may only have an HIV test done with the consent and in the presence of the parents should be abolished, says the Medical Council of Thailand. She wants that condition removed from the Child Protection Act. The condition was then intended to serve the best interests, protection and safety of children, but the age limit is now a problem.
– I already wrote it yesterday: the importance of the news escapes me, so I limited the message to the statement that Secretary of State Nattawut Saikuar had named the names of nine people who would be interested in the post of interim prime minister, when Prime Minister Yingluck has to step down.
Today the newspaper comes with a follow-up. One of the 'suspects', army commander Prayuth Chan-ocha, responds. “That is absolutely his own analysis and speculation without any reasonable grounds to support it,” says Prayuth. And I'll leave it at that. For the whole article, see Prayuth slams Nattawut for PM list leak.
- It's actually old news, but I'll report it anyway. According to a source at the former ruling party Pheu Thai, Prime Minister Yingluck may not be leading the list in the new elections (the leading candidate is automatically the prime minister candidate) because she is under investigation by the NACC in connection with the rice mortgage system and because of the increasingly negative attitude. about the influence of the Shinawatras. But a minister again disputes what the source has to say. Yingluck is still the main candidate for the list leader, because she has the support of the party supporters.
– Family of the Russian man who has disappeared without a trace (the newspaper writes: was kidnapped from his home in Phuket) has offered a reward of 500.000 baht for information leading to the arrest of the alleged kidnappers and 100.000 baht to trace the man. The case came to the public because his girlfriend was found in a hotel room with stab wounds.
According to Russian newspapers, one of the kidnappers is wanted by the police for a case of assault in 2005. He is a former officer of the Russian Far East Fleet and is said to have fled to Thailand to avoid arrest.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
Editorial notice
Bangkok Shutdown and the elections in images and sound:
www.thailandblog.nl/nieuws/videos-bangkok-shutdown-en-de-keuzeen/